Data Protection Policy

Privacy Policy

Cotswolds.com is committed to protecting and respecting your privacy.

This policy (together with the Terms of Use and any other documents referred to on it) sets out the basis on which any personal data collected from you, or that you provide, is used by Cotswolds.com. Please read the following carefully. By visiting the Cotswolds.com website (“the Site”), you are accepting and consenting to the practices described in this policy.

For the purpose of the Data Protection Act 1998 (“the Act”), the data controller is Cotswolds.com of Cotswold District Council, Trinity Road, Cirencester, Gloucestershire GL7 1PX.

The nominated representative for the purpose of the Act is Victoria Carman.

Information we may collect from you

Cotswolds.com may collect and process the following data about you:

Information you give us. You may provide information about you by filling in forms on the Site or by corresponding with Cotswolds.com by phone, e-mail or otherwise. This includes information you provide when you register to use the Site, subscribe to the Cotswolds.com service, competitions, prize draws, e-newsletter subscriptions and when you report a problem with the Site. The information you provide may include your name, address, e-mail address and phone number.

Information collected about you. With regard to each of your visits to the Site, Cotswolds.com may automatically collect the following information:

Anonymous demographic information which is not unique to you such as your postcode, age, gender, preferences, interests and favourites;

Please note that if you directly disclose personally identifiable information or personally sensitive data through Cotswolds.com public message boards, this information may be collected and used by others.

Please note also that Cotswolds.com does note read any of your private online communications.

USES MADE OF THE INFORMATION

Cotswolds.com uses the information held about you in the following ways:

Information you provide: This information will be used by Cotswolds.com:

to administer the Site and for internal operations, including troubleshooting, data analysis, testing, research, statistical and survey purposes;

to improve the Site to ensure that content is presented in the most effective manner for you and for your computer;

to allow you to participate in interactive features of the Site, when you choose to do so;

as part of Cotswolds.com’s efforts to keep the Site safe and secure;

to inform you of other products or services available from Cotswolds.com and its affiliates;

to measure or understand the effectiveness via surveys to conduct research about your opinion of current services or of potential new services that may be offered.

DISCLOSURE OF YOUR INFORMATION

Cotswolds.com does not sell, rent or lease its customer lists to third parties.

Cotswolds.com may, from time to time, contact you on behalf of external business partners about a particular offering that may be of interest to you. In such an instance, your unique personally identifiable information (e-mail, name, address, telephone number) is not transferred to the third party.

Cotswolds.com may share data with trusted partners to help us perform statistical analysis, send you email or postal mail, provide customer support or arrange for deliveries.

All third parties are prohibited from using your personal information except to provide these services to Cotswolds.com and they are required to maintain the confidentiality of your information.

Cotswolds.com does not use or disclose sensitive personal information, such as race, religion or political affiliations without your explicit consent.

Cotswolds.com analyses the frequency of visits by all users to the websites and pages within the Site to determine popularity of services and how best to customize future advertising.

If Cotswolds.com is under a duty to disclose or share your personal data in order to comply with any legal obligation, or in order to enforce or apply Cotswolds.com’s Terms of Use [INSERT LINK TO TERMS OF USE] and other agreements; or to protect the rights, property or safety of Cotswolds.com, users of Cotswolds.com or the general public. This includes exchanging information with other companies for the purposes of fraud protection and credit risk reduction.

COOKIES

The Site uses cookies to distinguish you from other users of the Site. This helps Cotswolds.com to provide you with a good experience when you browse the Site and also allows Cotswolds.com to improve the Site.

What is a cookie?

A cookie is a simple text file that is stored on a user’s computer (or mobile device) that is created when a user visits a website using a programme called a browser (for example: Internet Explorer, Firefox or Safari).

A cookie is not a programme itself and does not actively do anything on a user’s computer. A cookie cannot be used to identify a user personally but they do contribute to improving a user’s experience of a website.

A cookie simply allows a website to read the contents of the cookie text file. The text file itself simply contains a unique identifier code; the site name and some digits and numbers.

Why are cookies used?

Most websites will use cookies in order to improve the user experience by enabling the website to ‘remember’ the user, either for the duration of the visit or for repeat visits.

Cookies do many different things, such as:

Remembering what items a user may have added to a shopping basket or an itinerary as the user moves between pages on a website;

Saving a user’s preferences to allow them to customise a website; and

Measuring what users do on a website to ascertain which parts of a website are popular, how long they spend on a website, how often users return, where they come from etc.

What cookies are used by the Site?

Cookies are set by the Site (first party cookies) but may also be set by other websites (eg. You Tube) that run content on the Site’s pages (third party cookies).

Cookies can be set to remember a visitor for the duration of their visit (session cookies) or to remember a visitor for repeat visits (persistent cookies).

Where your personal data is stored

Cotswolds.com will take all steps reasonably necessary and practicable to secure your personal information from unauthorised access, use or disclosure.

Cotswolds.com will take all steps reasonably necessary to ensure that the data and personally identifiable information you provide on computer servers is as secure as is reasonably practicable and kept in a controlled, secure environment, protected from unauthorised access, use or disclosure.

The Site may, from time to time, contain links to and from the websites of partner networks, advertisers and affiliates of Cotswolds.com. If you follow a link to any of these websites, please note that these websites have their own privacy policies and that Cotswolds.com does not accept any responsibility or liability for these policies. Please check these policies before you submit any personal data to these websites.

Access to Information

The Act gives you the right to access information held about you. Your right of access can be exercised in accordance with the Act. Any access request may be subject to a fee of £10 to meet our costs in providing you with details of the information we hold about you.

Changes to our Privacy Policy

Any changes made to this Privacy Policy in the future will be posted on this page and, where appropriate, notified to you by e-mail. Please check back frequently to see any updates or changes to this Privacy Policy.